Just got the Nothing Phone (2) and it seems there’s system wide noise suppression being applied to the mics.
- It happens in all applications, be it stock camera, gcam ports, whatsapp, calls etc. because it’s system wide
- It’s quite aggressive but also not exactly intelligent in what’s being suppressed. it removes ambience and room echo resulting in a hollow / “underwater” type sound almost everywhere. it tries to filter out music and anything that isn’t speech (as if only speech is worth recording…?)
- despite apparently trying to focus on voice recording, it muddies the start of words during calls and speakerphone use is totally out of the question
- There is no option to disable noise suppression or to change anything about it
- not even deep settings apps like “SetEdit SettingsDatabaseEditor” can find any exposed values to flip (to disable suppression)
Despite the Phone 2 feeling like a fairly premium phone in most ways - the fact that Nothing found it appropriate to ship aggressive noise suppression on the mics with no option to disable is concerning. And makes the phone feel far cheaper than it actually is.
Musicians like @AtulKachhap or myself are literally unable to record audio on this phone that otherwise probably does have a serviceable mic if it wasn’t for this feature.
I was looking to replace my iPhone XS with this phone but looks like I’m going to have to carry it around a bit longer to record video until this gets fixed.
The settings to disable noise suppression need to be exposed to end users ASAP
